# Xero

> Cloud accounting for small businesses, with unlimited users

Xero is cloud accounting software for small businesses and their accountants. It reconciles bank transactions, sends invoices and quotes, captures bills and receipts, pays bills by ACH and forecasts cash flow. In the US, payroll is an add-on run by Gusto inside Xero.

- **Category:** Accounting & Invoicing
- **Made by:** Xero Limited (since 2006)
- **Website:** https://www.xero.com/us/
- **Runs on:** Web, iOS, Android
- **Facts last checked:** Oct 17, 2026

## Pricing

Xero is a paid product with a free trial, starting at $27 per month, billed monthly.

- **Pricing model:** Free trial
- **Free plan:** None.
- **Free trial:** One month free on any plan, taken instead of the 3-month discount.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Early | $27 per month, billed monthly | Advertised at $5.40 a month for the first 3 months. Quotes, 20 invoices, 5 bills, bank reconciliation, sales tax and a 30-day cash flow forecast. |
| Growing | $59 per month, billed monthly | Advertised at $11.80 a month for the first 3 months. No invoice or bill limits, auto-reconcile, dashboards, budgets and a 60-day forecast. |
| Established | $97 per month, billed monthly | Advertised at $19.40 a month for the first 3 months. Adds multiple currencies, project time and costs, expense claims and a 180-day forecast. |

Read from https://www.xero.com/us/pricing-plans/ on Oct 17, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Xero before buying.

## Ways to pay less

- **80% off the first 3 months** (Other savings): New US customers buying their first organization pay 20% of the base plan price for 3 months, then the regular monthly price. Add-ons are not discounted. Source: https://www.xero.com/us/pricing-plans/
- **Two months of Xero Payroll free** (Other savings): Xero's payroll page offers two months free to try Xero Payroll, which then costs $36 a month plus $6 per employee or contractor. Source: https://www.xero.com/us/accounting-software/payroll/

## Key features

- **Bank reconciliation:** Match bank transactions to invoices and bills. Auto-reconcile is part of Growing and Established, and a $5 a month add-on on Early.
- **Invoices, quotes and online payments:** Send invoices and quotes with a payment service attached, and take card payments in person with Tap to Pay on iPhone and Android.
- **Bills and Smart Document Capture:** Bills and receipts are pulled into Xero from documents, and standard ACH bill payments in US dollars are included on every plan.
- **Cash flow forecasts and analytics:** Forecasts run 30, 60 or 180 days ahead depending on the plan, and Syft analytics, dashboards and health scorecards are built in.
- **JAX assistant:** Xero's AI assistant answers questions about the business's numbers and handles routine bookkeeping tasks.
- **Xero Payroll, powered by Gusto:** Full-service payroll that calculates, files and pays federal and state taxes across all 50 states, without leaving Xero.

## Good for

- Small businesses that want every staff member and adviser in the books at no extra cost
- Businesses that work with an accountant who already uses Xero
- Companies that bill or pay in several currencies, on Established

## Worth knowing

- The advertised prices are 80% off for the first 3 months; plans then renew at $27, $59 or $97 a month.
- Early stops at 20 invoices and 5 bills, and its graphs and cash flow forecast are the basic ones.
- US payroll costs $36 a month plus $6 per employee or contractor, and is not offered to Xero's US mobile-only subscribers.
- These are US prices; Xero sells in other countries, including New Zealand, Australia and the UK, on separate regional sites.

## ToolGPA grades

**GPA: 2.6 out of 4**, graded Oct 17, 2026. Xero is proper small-business accounting with unlimited users on every plan, so your bookkeeper and accountant come in at no extra cost. It reconciles the bank, captures bills, forecasts cash and runs US payroll through Gusto. The snag is Early, the $27 plan, which stops at 20 invoices and 5 bills, so most businesses end up on Growing at $59.

- **Value for money: C.** Early is $27 a month, between this category's middle at $23 and its dearer quarter at $31.10, and it stops at 20 invoices and 5 bills. No limits means Growing at $59. Users are unlimited on every plan, though, which helps once a team is involved.
- **Free plan and trial: C.** One month free on any plan, but you give up the 80%-off-for-3-months offer to take it. There's no free plan, and the listing doesn't say whether a card is needed for the trial.
- **Features: B.** Bank reconciliation, invoices and quotes, Tap to Pay, bill capture, free ACH bill payments, cash flow forecasts, Syft analytics, the JAX assistant and Gusto payroll. Multiple currencies need Established, but the whole job is here.
- **Ease of use: B.** 4.65 from 1,689 App Store ratings, just under the top band. Auto-reconcile, which takes away the most clicking, is part of Growing and Established and a $5 a month add-on on Early.
- **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web, iPhone and Android, plus an app store with Gusto, Stripe, Syft, Dext, A2X and Mercury. There's no desktop app, which is what keeps it off an A.

These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Xero's own pages on 17 October 2026, and its App Store rating. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews.

## Where it stands among accounting and invoicing tools

- Xero's GPA of 2.6 is higher than 10 of the 17 other accounting and invoicing tools we grade, and level with 1.
- It stands best on features (B, above 13 of 17) and worst on free plan and trial (C, above 0).
- Its paid plans start at $27 a month, against a middle price of $19 for the category: 10 of the 16 others that charge start lower.
- On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 3.0 out of 4. 3 tools score higher and cost less.

The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/accounting

## Keep it, or make your own?

**Keep it.** To replace Xero you would be making live feeds from your bank, which take an agreement with each bank or a service that has them. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. It costs $324 a year.

- You could make: Invoicing, expense tracking and reports: an app builder makes these well.
- You could not: Live feeds from your bank, which take an agreement with each bank or a service that has them.
- You could not: Payroll taxes worked out and filed with the government for you.
- You could not: A real app for iOS and Android. Something home-made would be a web page.
- You could not: It plugs into other products, Gusto, Stripe and Syft among them.
- You could not: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself.
- You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job.

A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it.

## What people say

- **App Store rating of the iPhone and iPad app:** 4.6 out of 5 from 1,689 ratings in the United States, read Oct 17, 2026. This is the store's rating of the app, not a score from ToolGPA. Source: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id441880705

## Works with

Gusto, Stripe, Syft, Dext, A2X, Mercury

**Tags:** Bookkeeping, Invoicing, Expense tracking, Reports, Payroll, AI features

## Alternatives

- [QuickBooks Online](https://toolgpa.com/tools/quickbooks): Cloud accounting from Intuit, from a free plan to 25-user Advanced. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/quickbooks-vs-xero)
- [FreshBooks](https://toolgpa.com/tools/freshbooks): Invoicing and accounting for freelancers and service businesses. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/freshbooks-vs-xero)
- [Zoho Books](https://toolgpa.com/tools/zoho-books): Online accounting from Zoho, with a free plan and six paid tiers. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/xero-vs-zoho-books)
- [Wave](https://toolgpa.com/tools/wave): Free invoicing and bookkeeping for US and Canadian small businesses. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/wave-vs-xero)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 17, 2026:

- https://www.xero.com/us/pricing-plans/
- https://www.xero.com/us/pricing-plans/early/
- https://www.xero.com/us/
- https://www.xero.com/us/accounting-software/payroll/
- https://www.xero.com/us/about/
- https://apps.apple.com/us/app/xero-accounting-for-business/id441880705
- https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.xero.touch&gl=US&hl=en
- https://apps.xero.com/us

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/xero
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).